I’m about to embark upon the construction of a new garage. As of right now the plans specify wood shingles to match the house. I’m slightly intrigued with using squares of copper siding panels. I haven’t found much on this topic and I’m wondering about the following: What would the typical costs be per square foot? How difficult is it to install and how does one install it? Where can you buy the material? Durability….I assume pretty good. An earlier Fine Homebuilding article highlighted an artist’s studio but the article was vague on these points. Thanks much for your insight, Urbandevelopment
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You can get 16 oz copper for about $1.50/sq ft from N.B. Handy company of Roanoake VA. It's a commodity market, so the price fluctuates. It comes in 3' x 10' sheets. Allow for seams and cutoffs, nails, shipping, etc....
Installing it is moderately difficult, search around here for posts from greencu for the best info on exactly how. Another good resource is the Copper Development Association. Their web site, IIRC, is http://www.copper.org.
Durability should be OK for 50 - 100 years. It's usually used for roofing, as siding the only new issues would be that it's exposed to potential denting, uneven patina problems from people touching it, and it's going to be seen up close where these are more obvious.
-- J.S.
I'm slightly intrigued with using squares of copper siding panels.
Not sure what that is, but we use 3'x10' sheets of 16 oz. copper for siding. Cost here is $1.40/ft, compared with the $7/ft cost of the last copper lap siding I saw. Don't know what you have under the copper. I've used both stainless screws and copper rivets to attach the sheets to our metal studs. Goes up quickly, life span of ?, and no maintenance. Is there anything better?
Comes from a copper supplier who mostly sells to roofers. I understand it can be a problem to find a supplier if copper roofs are uncommon in your area.
PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
If in Pac NW, call Alaska Cu and Brass or similar distributor, they'll fix you up at spot prices.